R.J. Ellory

Every now and then, along comes one of those books.  The sort that makes you look at people who make statements like "I NEVER read genre fiction" with just that little bit of sadness for what they are missing.  That's not to say that BAD SIGNS is the sort of book that everyone is going to enjoy, but for any readers looking for something that will really make you think, take you into some very uncomfortable places, and be profoundly challenged, then it will be an outstanding book.

Strange as it may seem from the blurb, this is a book about hope.  Albeit brutally wrapped up in human frailty.  Returning to themes that Ellory has explored in earlier books - this is the story of young men confronted with an impossible situation, informed only by a deprived and desperate background, and the choices that they make.  BAD SIGNS gives us two young boys, half-brothers, raised by the same mother, witnesses to the same violence and experiencing the desperation and degradation of State Care together, who make independent choices when pushed to the extreme.  Fuelled by their respective ages, tempered undoubtedly by their allotted "roles" in their relationship, Clarence (Clay) Luckman and Elliott Danziger fight their dark stars in their own particular ways.

BAD SIGNS is populated by difficult people to read about - be it because of who they are, what they become, or what could happen to them.  Psychopathic serial killer Earl Sheridan is a violent, out of control madman, who for some reason chooses not to kill the brothers in the aftermath of his escape.   Which makes reading about their present in his thrall terrifying.  What happens to those two boys while they are dragged across the country by this lunatic, violently killing just about everybody he encounters is profoundly discomforting reading.  As each of the early chapters end by flagging the horror that is about to occur, it's really difficult to see where any hope is going to come from.  Until the boys make their own choices, and the affects of that start to play out.  Even then, the tension remains as you worry about how this will play out for the boys.  The story remains disturbing and confronting, and the tension is ramped up even more as the reader is dragged, kicking and screaming into the minds of these two boys.  Somehow, it's not long before a sense of hope does rise, and with that the tension gets even worse as the reader is left fighting a range of emotions - identification, terror, worry for the future, nervous about the potential resolutions.

It's clever this BAD SIGNS.  It's incredibly clever.  It's dark and dire, and frightening, disturbing and hypnotic.  It's only when you've finished reading, when the resolution is known and the tension can finally abate, that there's a chance for this reader to look back and consider.  What the book has done is take two characters from the same mother and childhood, with that slightly different genetic background, put them in dire circumstances and look closely, forensically at what becomes of each person.  Whilst not everything is completely hopeless, and there are glimpses of bravery, belief, care, love, defiance and empathy, it is a careful study in human frailty, in madness, mistakes and the power of connections.  It's a sobering reminder of how a single encounter can twist a life forever - good or bad, it just depends on how each individual plays the cards they are handed.  

There were points where I had to step away for a little while.  The violence, the psychopathy of Earl Sheridan, the circumstances of these two young boys, it's in your face.  It's pointed, almost grotesque.  It's frequently overwhelming.  But it's not gratuitous, it draws a very clear picture of the peril of Clay and Elliott, as well as anyone who innocently comes across the worst of them.  

Make no mistake, BAD SIGNS is not an easy book to read, it is, however, one hell of a very very very good book.

I started reading R.J. Ellory's books with A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS which I absolutely loved.  Then moved onto THE ANNIVERSARY MAN which made my Top Ten of 2010 and eventually, after I worked out a way to finagle the definition, into the two books that I nominated as my favourites for that year in my contribution to an article in Deadly Pleasures magazine.  SAINTS OF NEW YORK is the latest I've been lucky enough to read, and with each book, I just get more and more impressed.

SAINTS OF NEW YORK is veering more towards a traditional procedural crime novel than earlier books, but with Ellory's trademarks of flawed characters, in a dark and murky world, struggling against personal and external demons and pressures.

In Frank Parrish's case, a lot of his demons come directly from the larger than life legacy of his father, one of the original "Saints of New York", the policemen who famously stood up to the Mafia in the early 1980's.  Whilst everybody else regards John Parrish as a hero and legend, Frank stands alone, remembering a man who seemed to care more about the job, and the money, and status than he did about his own family.  How Frank deals with his own day to day life, as a divorced, alcoholic,  desperate and disaffected man, is woven brilliantly into this book as he has been forced to attend daily sessions with a Police Department counsellor.  As these sessions proceed, Frank's state of mind, his background and his life are drawn out, just as he inches closer and closer to the killer of what turns out to be more than just one teenage girl.

SAINTS OF NEW YORK has a wonderfully dark, murky, tense and slightly desperate feel about it.  It sets itself deep in the underbelly of New York, simultaneously taking you deep into the personal world of Frank Parrish.  Violent and dark, there is also an intricate and compelling plot in which a man handles the professional with aplomb and the personal with a staggering lack thereof.  I really have no idea how this author does it, but there's something amazingly compelling about Frank Parrish.  Which doesn't take anything away from a fast-paced, well plotted novel that takes a few chapters to pull you in and then grabs you and holds onto you until the very end.  And then for a while after that. 

Sometimes, not very often granted, a blurb on the front of a book nails it for me.  In the case of THE ANNIVERSARY MAN the blurb from Clive Cussler is "The perfect author to read late into the night".  I'd definitely advise that you catch up on your sleep before you pick up a book by R.J. Ellory.  This is the second of his that I've read now and both of them have kept me up way too late, or found me sneaking out to hide in the chook sheds and grab a little time with the book when I really should have been working.  

THE ANNIVERSARY MAN is the story of a serial killer, but don't let that put you off.  The killer is not the focus of this book, there's none of that "in the head of" stuff going on.  Instead, you get a glimpse into the life of a victim who survived and the cop who, many years later, finds himself looking to that victim for guidance on what is driving a current day killer.  John Costello is the victim who survived when his girlfriend and he were attacked as teenagers.  His killer caught, John was left to recover from his physical injuries and find a way to live his life and deal with the mental trauma of what he had been through.  His way of coping is to know serial killers and their victims.  To see the patterns, I suppose to try to understand why.  Karen Langley is the crime reporter for whom John works as a researcher.  She knows little about John's personal life, but she is extremely protective of him.  Ray Irving is a cop with his own trauma.  A natural loner, the death of his long-term girlfriend has taken away Ray's anchor, left him blindsided in a way that he has no idea how to handle.  In a poignant and almost sad way, a series of killings that eventually sync up to be copies of previous serial killer's acts becomes Ray's personal crusade.  A desire to stop the Anniversary Killer drives him, his ability to throw himself into the investigation despite barriers, seems to be his need to be relevant, wanted, busy, connected to the world again.  Ray and Karen and John somehow have to feel their way into a working relationship, maybe the potential of a personal relationship between Ray and Karen, but somehow these three people have to band together to help find a dangerous, inexplicable serial killer who seems unstoppable.

This is a very different serial killing book.  The murders that are happening are all as close to identical to the past events as the killer can make them, right down to the dates, methodology, the scenes of the crime.  But the Anniversary Killer is emulating more than one past serial killer so part of the investigation must be to solve how this person has such detailed knowledge.  There's also the never-ending question of why.  More chillingly, what next.  And that is where John's particular knowledge becomes something Ray relies on - finding the next anniversary, working out where the killer is likely to strike.  The relationship that builds between Ray, Karen and John is beautifully done - the potential of a new romance touching and not at all distracting; Karen's protectiveness towards John nicely balanced; John's life somewhat shadowy, his knowledge completely understandable, and so touching.

THE ANNIVERSARY MAN was as close to perfect a reading experience as I've had in quite a while, I really did not want to put this book down.  Why?  Possibly because the crimes, as confrontational and awful as they are, were used as a catalyst for other people's reactions or actions.  The characters in this book aren't perfect, perhaps a little overtly damaged in some cases, but the insight into human behaviour was both illuminating and touching.  And there's no Hollywood ending here - it's real, and it hurt and whilst, you may have an inkling of what's coming, there was just enough to make you wonder if Ellory would really go through with it.  There is also that something that just works for particular readers - I really believed in Ray.  I really wanted him to succeed, solve the crimes, get the girl, become best mates with John and ride off into the sunset to a happy place.  And most importantly, I can happily forgive him for anything he didn't quite manage to do.